Dear members of the IEEE Lebanon Section,

What a year 2020 we had!

I hope you’re safe and in good health, and that 2021 will be by far a better year at all levels.

Due to the financial challenges Lebanon has been through, most of us, over 500 members, have not been able to renew their IEEE memberships for 2021 as Lebanese banks have restricted international payments in foreign currencies. We have been in discussions and negotiations with IEEE for over six months to find a suitable solution, and they have been irresponsive until two weeks ago. We requested a full or a partial waiver of the membership fees; unfortunately, IEEE is not positive about it. We requested a two-months extension of all Lebanese IEEE memberships until the renewal problem is sorted out, and we were granted this extension to avoid any disruption in our services.

IEEE is proposing a group renewal and a wire-transfer payment mode, which we are currently exploring with a pilot group of twenty members. If successful, it will be repeated with a larger group to give a chance to all members to maintain their memberships. If you would like to take part of the next renewal phase, please follow the steps below.

• Go to the http://www.ieee.org/renew, sign in with your IEEE account and password
• Verify and/or update your address, education, and employment information if needed
• Review the shopping cart and make changes if needed. You do not need to “Proceed to checkout”
• Send your Name, Member Number, Email Address, and the amount due shown in the IEEE shopping cart to the IEEE Lebanon Section Treasurer Youmni Ziadeh at y.ziadeh@bau.edu.lb before March 15, 2021.

Payments will be arranged later locally and details of the arrangements will be provided in due course. IEEE Lebanon section will handle all international transactions on your behalf.

I look forward to working with you again in 2021 and serve together the Lebanese technical community for the welfare of our society.

On behalf of IEEE Lebanon section,

Walid Karam,

Secretary